SmallBusinessNewz

The Microsoft AdCenter blog is reporting on an interesting phenomenon which has advertisers going for financial topics far more than in the past as the economic downturn continues to plague us.

(Source: Microsoft adCenter Internal Data)

"As the general public becomes more concerned with their financial security, adCenter accounts in the banking sector have seen average YoY increases of over 200% in impressions and 190% in clicks (September ‘07 vs. September ’08)," writes Microsoft's Craig Brown. "These increases have been steady since January ’07."

This behavior has an impact on how financial businesses should go about their search engine marketing. Brown says, "It may be more cost effective for direct insurance advertisers to adopt a bid strategy that aims to maintain a top 3 position for middle/top generic terms while maintaining a page 1 position on the top terms such as ‘car insurance’ or ‘home insurance’."

Chart: Difference in CTR Performance Between Comparison Sites and Direct Advertisers on Top Versus Top/Middle Insurance Keywords. Source: adCenter Internal Data

Brown looks a little more closely at user behavior trends, and also provides some tips for prospering during the credit crunch. It's an interesting post to read, and some of the information may help you with platforms besides Microsoft AdCenter, such as AdWords or Yahoo Search Marketing.